Ads
related to: restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses worksheet
Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The distinction between restrictive, or integrated, relative clauses and non-restrictive, or supplementary, relative clauses in English is made both in speaking (through prosody), and in writing (through punctuation): a non-restrictive relative clause is surrounded by pauses in speech and usually by commas in writing, whereas a restrictive ...
English does not generally mark modifiers for restrictiveness, with the exception of relative clauses: non-restrictive ones are set off in speech through intonation (with a pause beforehand and an uninterrupted melody [dubious – discuss]) and in writing by using commas, whereas restrictive clauses are not.
This is a non-restrictive clause; it must be set off by commas, and it must use the word which (or who, for a person). Sentence A2 would have been correct English about 200 years ago, but today it is simply wrong. That, used in this way, can only introduce a restrictive clause, and a restrictive clause must not be set off by commas. Note that ...
A non-restrictive relative clause is a relative clause that is not a restrictive relative clause. Whereas a non-restrictive or non-defining relative clause merely provides supplementary information, a restrictive or defining relative clause modifies the meaning of its head word (restricts its possible referent). For example:
The punctuation of an adjective clause depends on whether it is essential (restrictive) or nonessential (nonrestrictive) and uses commas accordingly. Essential clauses are not set off with commas; nonessential clauses are. An adjective clause is essential if the information it contains is necessary to the meaning of the sentence:
move to sidebar hide. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
2 Move to "Restrictive clause (English)" and back. 5 comments. 3 Fundamental Englishness of article? 4 comments. 4 Spanish and restrictiveness. 5 comments. 5 Terminology.
In English, a comma is used to separate a dependent clause from the independent clause if the dependent clause comes first: After I fed the cat, I brushed my clothes. (Compare this with I brushed my clothes after I fed the cat.) A relative clause takes commas if it is non-restrictive, as in I cut down all the trees, which were over six feet tall.